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MS - Sherri Taylor, 15, raped & murdered, Biloxi, 11 July 1978

Cold case leads to arrest in rape of teen murder victim

BILOXI -- A recent DNA test in a 33-year-old cold case indicates a teenage murder victim was raped by her father before he called police to report he had returned home from work and found her dead, police said.

It sounds like family suspected something. The older sister talked about her relief.

Finding the DNA and they said the father "implied" he had a sexual relationship with his daughter. So the signs they saw of sexual assualt wouldn't necessarily be proof that he killed his daughter. Instead he could claim the signs of sexual assault were from the night before. So now they will have to try to tie the murder on him too. But as you said at his age, if they put him away for the statuatory rape, it would hopefully be long enough that he would die in prison.

A south Mississippi man was charged Monday with statutory rape in the 1978 sexual assault and slaying of his teenage daughter, and authorities said he could face more charges in the attack.

snip...
The Sun Herald newspaper interviewed William Taylor for a story in 1990 in which he said he didn't know why his daughter was killed.

"It's still a big question mark for me," William Taylor told the paper. "But in the long run, the Lord will take care of it. I don't have to see anybody croak. I don't have to see anybody fry. The Lord has taken care of it."

HARRISON COUNTY -- William Taylor has lived a relatively quiet life just outside the Gulfport city limits since his 15-year-old daughter was found raped and brutally stabbed at his home in Biloxi 33 years ago.

With the exception of confrontations with neighbors, the 78-year-old man had stayed out of the public eye until his arrest last week. Biloxi police investigators, who earlier this year re-opened the cold case of Sherri Taylor’s sexual assault and murder, arrested the father Monday on a charge of statutory rape.

Police said Taylor has admitted having sex with his daughter but maintains he did not rape her.

Taylor has not been charged with her murder. Sherri was stabbed numerous times, including a stab wound to each of her eyes. The father reported her death to police, saying he found her slain in the bathroom when he returned home from work.